Archive for April, 2009

The sun, the surf, the sights … the cheese. Ah, it’s what boys’ weekends are made of. The Gold Coast, Australia’s answer to Las Vegas minus a squillion casinos and bright neon lights, but certainly ample gambling opportunities, bands, great pubs and clubs, sunshine and sand – and that’s not desert sand, but the soft, powdery kind plonked right at the feet of some of the most spectacular beaches in the world.

Oh yes, then there’s the bikini clad babes wandering around here, there and everywhere. And plenty of buff male torsos for the ideal eye candy for a girls’ weekend, mind you.

The journey

But down to business, boys’ weekend business, of course. Do something a little different and fly into Brisbane rather than Coolangatta, where we snapped up our DriveNow bargain basement Mitsubishi Lancer, and take your time looking around this sunny city before cruising down the Pacific Motorway for an hour or so. We had lunch at the superb Cha Cha Char Wine Bar & Grill in Brisbane, beaut river views and awesome venue to tear into a juicy char grilled steak. This recharged the batteries for an afternoon of surfing action on Main Beach on the Gold Coast. Then we checked into the mighty Crowne Plaza and set up base for the rest of the weekend which included a day at the races, and a big night at Jupiters Casino.

On the Sunday, a hangover couldn’t stop us from letting rip with some adrenalin-pumping fun at the Wet N Wild fun park – can’t avoid Surf Rider, Kamikaze and extreme Tornado for a real buzz and to set the real men apart from the boys. Take note: this kind of activity is the perfect hangover cure! It allowed us to fire up, head back into town for another tilt at the nightlife, this time minus Jupiters which would have continued to clean out our wallets, no doubt. This time we did the rounds in the heart of town in Surfers Paradise, namely Orchid Street after about 10pm. No shortage of great night spots, food and beautiful people.

AUSTIN BONHAM

It’s the stuff of legend. Some call it Australia’s Loch Ness. It’s the Mahogany Ship, the mystery vessel, maybe a Portuguese caravel or even a Chinese junk, claimed to lie buried beneath the dunes between Warrnambool and Port Fairy on Victoria’s notorious Shipwreck Coast.

Historians predict that if found it could rewrite the history of Australia’s discovery.

You might not find it, but walking the sands and following the clues is heaps of fun.

The journey

From Melbourne there are two choices, with either Warrnambool or Port Fairy, a little beyond, as your base.

The inland route to Warrnambool, 269km or a 3.5-hour drive along the Princes Highway through Geelong, Colac and Camperdown, is the quickest, while your return can be via the spectacular Great Ocean Road, through Lorne and Apollo Bay, which takes a couple of hours longer.

Follow the clues

To get your bearings on the Mahogany Ship jigsaw, first visit Warrnambool’s Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum to soak up the atmosphere.

Then head west from Warrnambool toward historic Port Fairy. A popular spot to investigate is Gormans Road, on the left just beyond the Tower Hill State Game Reserve (also worth a visit). Follow the road toward the coast and wander east among the dunes where many believes the ship lies.

Or, to take it all in, follow the 23km Mahogany Ship Walking Track between Port Fairy and Warrnambool. It passes all of the main sites where searches have been undertaken since the dark-timbered wreck supposedly disappeared beneath the shifting sands more than 150 years ago.

I did my sleuthing in a lightning two days but ideally four or five would be the go, particularly if you like to take all those side roads.

There’s plentiful motel accommodation (booking is advisable) in Warrnambool, although a local pub or a B&B in Warrnambool or Port Fairy can be more down-home-ish.

Who knows, you might solve the mystery. If not, you’ll enjoy one of Australia’s most fascinating pieces of coastline.

For a modern-day adventure it’s 8 out of 10 – plus there’s the lure of local wineries, world heritage sites and beaches.

Scott

Nerves jangled? Life getting you down? Don’t reach for yet another “miracle” vitamin pill. Head for Daylesford in country Victoria. This bucolic retreat should do the trick. It’s done it for us, numerous times.

Let it pamper spirit and body with its plethora of massage therapists and spas, a couple of great bookshops, and some of the best grub in country Australia.

Rebirthed as the gay centre of rural Victoria, Daylesford with its treed streets and fine gold era buildings, provides attractions for all persuasions.

The journey

Getting there is a cinch. It’s an hour and a half up the Calder Freeway from Melbourne, turning off to Woodend, and then left at the end of the main street to Daylesford. Or follow the Western Freeway (M8) from Melbourne, exiting toward Daylesford at Ballan.

What to do first is the dilemma.

My first stop is book heaven, the Avant Garden, a labyrinth of tomes of all types (there are 14 rooms of them) in an elegant Georgian bank building on the main street. If you can’t find what you’re after here, head to the Lake Daylesford Book Barn, down by the water a couple of kilometres out of town.

An institution for two decades, it now has a casual dining deck from which to absorb the tranquillity.

If collectables are your go, visit The Mill Market (105 Central Springs Rd), a massive antiques complex. For more stylish fare (plus food), try the Convent Gallery, in a former convent (9 Daly St) with attractive garden and statuary. And check out the Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens, east of the town centre on an extinct volcano (a stunner in autumn).

Fabulous food

Oh, and the food! Daylesford is seemingly wall-to-wall eateries. Choose according to mood. There’s Frangos & Frangos, European style cafe dining in the main street with creamy expresso coffee, tasty pastas and to-die-for lemon tarts. Or for grander, try Alla Wolf-Tasker’s celebrated Lakehouse of seasonal delights.

For mine, the best grub is at the Farmers Arms hotel on the Trentham side of town. No sausages and veg country pub this. It’s a treat.

For R and R, Daylesford rates 8 out of 10.

TONY FAWCETT

It’s the holy grail of travel destinations – a place combining perfect weather, idyllic beaches, great food and world-standard wine. So why aren’t more people flocking to South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula?

Southern treasure

I guess I should be delighted that this hidden treasure south of Adelaide hasn’t become the Australian version of California’s Napa Valley, overrun by tourists and subsequently overblown and overpriced. Instead, it’s South Australia’s little secret, one which they seem quite happy to share with just a select few. And for those in the know, it’s quite a find.

A driving holiday is the best way to experience this ‘Land of Milk and Honey’. After picking up a campervan from DriveNow, we headed south on the Fleurieu Way via the Southern Expressway, the road opening to glorious rural vistas within half an hour of the city. There is 170 kilometres of coastline to meander along – stunning beaches pounded by the Southern Ocean offering sublime surfing, sun-worship or beachcombing in any season, flanked by gently rolling rills and peaceful hamlets.

At Old Noarlinga, however, the main road deviates inland via the McLaren Vale area. If you’re a wine lover, it’s definitely worth lingering here! One of the country’s premier wine districts, there are more than 76 cellar doors open to the public – favourites include Chapel Hill (with its cellar located in an old church chapel and a fantastic cooking school onsite) and d’Arenberg (whose restaurant boasts sublime views across the valley).

Markets & hamlets

If you are travelling on a weekend, make sure to stop off at the Willunga Farmers Market, a gourmet’sdelight selling organic vegetables, creamy cheeses, locally grown olive oil and freshly baked organic breads.

If you can drag yourself away from this fabulous part of the world, more coastal delights await – stunning beachside communities such as Aldinga, Yankalilla Bay and down to rugged Cape Jervis, jumping off point for Kangaroo Island.

If you have your family in tow, make a beeline to Victor Harbour, where the kids will love the horse-drawn tram across the causeway to visit the penguins on Granite Island. If you’re travelling between June and October, pause for a while on top of the Bluff on the lookout for whales breaching in the ocean below.

In fact, if you are going to visit the Fleurieu, there really is no better time than in October, when the Fleurieu Fiesta is in full swing. This celebration of local food, wine and culture is a real treat – guaranteed to make you loosen your belt a notch or two!

ANGELA DE LEON

This one may not necessarily be the prettiest drives from Melbourne, but it’s certainly the fastest way to reach the magic that awaits on the mighty Murray River. Echuca, about 200km north of Melbourne on the Victoria and NSW border, was once the biggest inland port in Australia and has retained much of that old world charm in the heart of town while also offering a cosmopolitan way of life too. In a nutshell there’s the historic port to explore, great restaurants and pubs, big clubs over the border in Moama, a wealth of river activities including fishing, skiing, swimming, Paddlesteamer cruises and much more.

The journey

From Melbourne, it’s a leisurely two and a half-to-three hour drive up the Hume and Northern highways and you’ll pass through little towns including Kilmore, Heathcote, Elmore and Rochester – each with their own respective charms but nothing close to  the abundance of attractions, river appeal and cosmopolitan allure offered in Echuca.

The accommodation options are ample in this part of the world, so either grab a car, hit the highway and set up base in a hotel/B&B/resort or, better still, grab a campervan and stay in one of the excellent holiday parks (aka caravan parks) on either side of the border. Shady River Holiday Park or Murray River Holiday Park are two worth checking out online. You won’t really need to venture too far from the town itself once you get there because there’s so much to do!

Food, glorious food

Three special mentions for food and dining experiences that simply cannot be ignored: Oscar W’s Wharfside matches just about any restaurant in Australia for its amazing riverside location, it’s exquisite menu and first class service; Ceres in Nish St and in the historic Mill building; and Morrisons in Moama, another riverside treat that also doubles as a magnificent wedding and conference venue. There’s a bunch of other terrific eateries in and around town including Top of the Town for fish’n'chips, Roma pizza restaurant in the heart of the city opposite the old post office and quality coffee shops/cafes all over the place. Famous Beechworth Bakery is worth a brekky one morning, despite being a tad on the expensive side.

What to do

Or rather, what isn’t there to do! Catch a paddlesteamer cruise, hit a sandy riverbank for a swim or a fish, hire a houseboat for a few days or a week to really experience river life, check out Madison Spa, lose yourself in the world of activities at the Port of Echuca including Sharp’s Magic Movie House, explore the wharf or check out Oz Maze, National Holden Museum or Billabong Ranch.

AUSTIN BONHAM

Many visitors to Victoria think of the Great Ocean Road as the state’s ultimate driving holiday, but a 150km drive south-east from Melbourne to Phillip Island clearly can’t be underestimated. It’s a great drive leading to a fabulous holiday hotspot with a plethora of things to do.

A few months back we loaded up our six-berth Britz camper, hit the Monash Freeway, turned into the South Gippsland Freeway and then onto the Bass Highway and finally made our way to the island via Phillip Island Rd. Normally the trip would take roughly a couple of hours, take your time and you might find a few surprises along the way – including full scale replicas of meteorites that landed in the Cranbourne area in 1860 and Panny’s Amazing World of Chocolate where you can almost taste the Dame Edna portrait made of 12,000 chocolate pieces!

Pleasure island

Once on the island, don’t let it’s size fool you as there’s loads to do. In fact, the very fact it’s a small island only means everything is a mere five or 10 minute drive away … if not less. Setting up camp at Cowes Caravan Park meant we were right in the heart of the action being close to the main shopping precinct and planting our mobile holiday home right on the foreshore of the north side of the island. It’s within minutes to cafes, shops, the jetty. The activity highlights for us included the world famous Penguin Parade at night, a cruise to Seal Rocks with Wildlife Cruises and a 10 minute drive to Amaze N Things, an award winning venue boasting a giant wooden maze, mini golf and some excellent activities inside.

For driving adventure it’s a 7 out of 10.

For holiday activities it’s also an 8 out of 10.

10 words: Sun, beach, fish’n'chips, relaxed, convenience, family, marine life, chilly.

AUSTIN BONHAM